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Auto-responses are automated replies that Heimdall posts when a member sends a message matching a configured pattern. Unlike automod rules, which enforce and punish, auto-responses simply reply - they are informational. Common uses include answering frequently asked questions, directing members to the right channel, or acknowledging a keyword with a helpful resource link.

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How auto-responses work

Every message sent in a covered channel is checked against your configured auto-responses. When a match is found, the bot replies directly to the triggering message. Each auto-response has a per-channel cooldown to prevent the bot from spamming the same reply repeatedly. Matching works in two phases:
  1. Regex matching - patterns are evaluated in priority order. The first pattern that matches the message fires immediately and no further patterns are checked.
  2. AI matching - if no regex pattern matched and you have AI-enabled auto-responses configured, all of those candidates are sent to the AI classifier in a single call. The classifier picks the best match based on your natural-language descriptions, or returns nothing if no description fits.

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Creating an auto-response

Navigate to in the dashboard and click New Auto-Response.

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Regex triggers

Regex patterns are matched against the full message content. The match is case-insensitive by default. You do not need to anchor the pattern - a pattern of how.*join will match “how do I join”, “how can I join the server”, and similar phrases. If you need case-sensitive matching or other flags, you can configure pattern flags on the auto-response.

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AI triggers

AI-triggered auto-responses use a natural-language description rather than a pattern. For example, an AI auto-response with the description “member asking where to find the server rules” will fire when the AI classifier determines a message is asking about rules, even if the wording is entirely different each time. AI classification happens in a single batched call across all AI-enabled auto-responses, so the performance cost is low regardless of how many you configure.
AI auto-responses require the AI plugin to be enabled and configured on your server. Regex auto-responses work independently.

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Channel scoping

By default, a new auto-response is global - it applies to every channel. Setting the scope to Channel lets you pick specific channels (or categories) where the rule applies. Thread messages also check the parent channel’s auto-responses, so a channel-scoped rule covers that channel’s threads as well.

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Cooldowns

Each auto-response has a per-channel cooldown. If the bot already replied with a given auto-response in a channel within the cooldown window, it skips the match to avoid repetition. The cooldown resets separately per channel, so a reply in one channel does not block the auto-response from firing in another.

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Response formats

Text responses - the reply is sent as plain text. Long responses are automatically split at code fences or paragraph boundaries to stay within Discord’s 2000-character message limit. Embed responses - the reply is sent as a rich Discord embed. You can configure:

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Required permissions